Donald Trump’s new goal is to attract rich foreigners. He plans to do this by offering visas to people out of country for $5,000,000. He calls these “gold cards”, and they would offer permanent ownership.
Trump is doing this to keep top students who come to AMerica from other countries in the U.S. for job offers. According to NPR writer Asma Khalid and Franco Ordoñez, Trump has said “I get calls from, as an example, companies where they want to hire the No. 1 student at the school — person comes from … lots of different places, and they go to Harvard to Wharton School of Finance, they go to Yale”. He then says how they’re then offered jobs they often turn down since they’re unsure whether or not they’ll actually be able to stay in the U.S. This would raise the price of admission for investors and do away with “fraud” in the EB-5 program.
Trump has not disclosed what the qualifications to get the “Golden Card” are, though he did say they would not require congressional approval.
Maria Francis, writer for USA today, writes what Howard Lutnick, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, said about the matter. “They’ll have to go through vetting, of course – to make sure they’re wonderful world-class global citizens.”
This new program could also impact the EB-5 program currently in place. Under this program, investors and their families are able to apply for lawful permanent residence, (Green Card), if they have the necessary investment in commercial enterprise with a plan to make or reserve 10 permanent jobs that are full time for American workers.
More information about the “gold card” is said to release next week on Wednesday, March 12th, 2 weeks after the release of it on February 26th.